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If you are reading this, then you are a very special person. Unique, gifted, different; it does not matter how you wish to phrase it. As a result, I would like to congratulate you on your invitation to Starlight Academy. We are looking forward to meeting you.

Starlight Academy is a laid back roleplaying community with a goal in mind: to have fun while roleplaying. We post at our own pace, we plot to our hearts desire, and you decide how your roleplaying experience will be.

Power System Update
Starlight Academy has been using more or less the same power system for years. Originally, players were asked to choose a major power and a minor power, which eventually became our current two-power, five-subpower system. As we saw an increasing number of players with undefined species abilities, we opted to add the species ability section in to encourage players to write down their own interpretation of their character's species.

However, Starlight Academy has outgrown our power system. We see a lot of repeated questions (what's a power vs a subpower? is this a species ability or a power?), and a lot of inconsistency and confusion. Behind the scenes, the staff are hard at work on a new system which aims to make things much easier for players. We're going to be taking a lot of our behind-the-scenes balancing, and aiming to make it more transparent and less confusing.

Some clarifications and things worth noting:​

No ones powers will be downgraded. All characters will be grandfathered into the new system.

Most characters will have the option of improving their powers.

Players who update their apps but don't upgrade their powers will be rewarded with vouchers via a contest similar to AIM.

We're going to be running a power improvement month when the system is finished to encourage players to update their applications to conform with the new system.

This shift will be optional. All new apps will use the new system, but if you want to leave your old apps under the old system, you can.

As the staff work on this, you might see us being a bit slow in other areas. We'll be updating players regularly as we beta test the new system and make sure everything's all ready to go ahead of launch. If you've been considering a big revamp to your characters powers/species abilities, consider holding off a month and doing it under the new system instead.

Aura Legislation
As promised, the Manta Carlos Islands has new legislation about how aura style powers are handled. You can read all the details here. In summary: Mild auras have no change. Auras which impair the thinking of those around them need to wear warning bracelets. Auras which make people likely to commit crimes, harm themselves, or harm others are expected to wear power bracelets.

Spotlights@EmiRose is not only an avid threader but active in the ICC, Cbox, and SA discord. She tries her best to plot with and thread with who she can and her characters are delightfully different. Keep up the good work, Emirose! We're excited to see what you bring to the table in the future.

Jii, played by @Goblin, has been a major presence around the site as of late! They've already had a major spat of character development as they struggle to figure out their powers on an island that's really not built for them, and we're eager to see where Goblin takes them next!

New Faces Contest
The New Faces contest was a huge success, and all vouchers have been distributed as a result. We saw a huge uptick in posting, with the number of new posts and replies going out being comparable to the busy summer months. We just want to thank everyone who participated, and you'll definitely see this event coming back later this year!

Student Council Elections
Twice a year, Starlight Academy elects its student council as part of a school-wide event. Students from all grade levels are invited to participate, and the winners of the election will serve on the Student Council from May to October. This event-contest hybrid is run on a point system, with players encouraged to start and finish threads, write a speech, and play out how their character campaigns for election.

In-character, council members help make policy decisions, raise money, and run events with the help of the faculty. Out of character, players whose characters are on the council may be invited to participate and help organize school-related events.

The election post will be posted closer to the start of the election period.

Post Spree
We're going to be kicking off the student council elections with a one-day post spree! On Sunday May 13th, you can hop in and attempt to post as much as possible. While this spree is in honor of the elections, don't worry: non-election posts will still count!

Staff Changes
We're pleased to welcome @Lazzy to the staff team as a ranger. Rangers help out around the cbox, and are there to help answer any questions you might have.

Pardon System Lore Update
We've updated the Pardon System Lore Page to provide some information on the limitations of the pardon system, and what happens when someone uses the pardon system not in good faith.

New Issue Released
The May Issue of the Manta Carlos Print has been released.​

Power System Update
Our new power system has been largely completed, and we've begun beta testing it with the rangers. Rangers will be working on testing their own characters under the new system, ensuring that the transition is as seamless as possible. Rather than just dumping it on all of you, we're doing our best to ease into the transition and make sure it's 100% ready to go.

That said, we're happy to share a bit of a preview with all members now that things are a bit more solid.

We're going to be adding two new profile fields to the application: Common Magical Items and Resources. Common Magical Items will allow players to pull off a pre-made list for items. This includes normal nullification bracelets, single language charms, human shape charms, etc. Players will be allowed to add these items without having to go through the power upgrade process, but will exclude some of the more powerful options (nullification bracelets that limit only certain powers, omnilingualism charms), which will still have to be handled like normal.

The other new field, resources, isn't directly connected to our power balancing. Instead, it aims to give players a place to clearly note what kind of resources and lifestyle their character is living. Are they a young kid living off the schools scholarships? Are they an adult with a good job? This field is intended to be brief, but to help avoid confusion as to a characters lifestyle on the island.

Student Council Elections
The Starlight Academy Student Council Elections have begun! This twice a year event is a competition to see who ends up on the Student Council, an in-character group that helps organize school events while serving as the student body's representatives to the staff. Rather than players directly voting for characters, characters instead complete challenges (presenting a speech, starting and finishing threads related to the election) in order to represent the votes they're earning. You can check out the full election system here. This event will run until the 19th, and it's still not too late to sign up!

We also kicked this event off with a post spree, won by @Kadakism with 31 posts! Also a congrats to our runner up in the spree, @Kathinja!

Lilac Music Festival
At the heart Manta Carlos City in the downtown district, the residents or the island are celebrating the blossoming of the local lilac flowers.

Every spring, when the lilacs bloom, the air is filled with the fragrance of the flowers and the sound of music. You can find food stands lining the streets, entertainers walking the sidewalks, and musicians performing on stage.

The Lilac Festival event takes place Downtown from May 21st to the 31st. Please prefix all of your threads with "Event" so that members know which threads to participate in.

Please note that this event is a scenery event and players are encouraged to use this as background for their threads. Tag your threads with Lilac Music Festival.

Throughout the weekend, people lie out blankets or chairs and watch the main event of the Lilac Music Festival, which is the vast concert that goes on with both new artists from the island and famous singers who have moved the Manta Carlos.

The Lilac Concert is an ICC event taking place the weekend of the Lilac Music Festival.

Newspaper
We have a special mid-month edition of the Manta Carlos Print, highlighting some major news stories on the island. You can find it here.

New Lore - Nullification Bracelets
Nullification Bracelets (previously known as Power Bracelets) now have their own lore page! If you (or your characters) want to keep calling them power bracelets, you can, but we'll be trying to unify the language used officially in order to avoid confusion.

Spotlight Voting
You know the deal! Spotlight voting is now up and ready for you to have at it. You can find the voting here, so make sure you get your votes in soon.​

Student Council Elections
The elections has been running twice yearly since at least 2015, making it one of the older events still happening on the site. However, the demographics of the sites' characters have changed significantly since then, requiring repeated changes to accommodate. In 2015, when the elections first started, we had 195 student characters, and only 33 citizen characters. By late 2016, we had 221 students and 129 citizens. At this point, we have an almost equal number of student vs adult characters, which means that the elections - a big part of the sites event cycle - lock out more than half the characters on the site.

The elections can be really fun when there's major competition, but with only a subset of a subset (students who are interested in being on the student council) really participating, the elections are largely unnecessary. Instead of running a twice yearly event for only a few members, we're instead swapping to an alternate system.

Twice a year (in September and March), student council elections will be run in-character. There will be a signup, with players requesting specific spots ahead of when the election would actually be run. Assuming there are no conflicts (such as two people wanting the presidential spot), the council will be set without an actual election system running. If there is a conflict that might lead to actual competition, an election will be run instead, using the system that this past election ran under.

This'll lead to a bit more event variety, allowing events to be run on election months where there's no actual competition.

Lilac Music Festival
At the heart Manta Carlos City in the downtown district, the residents or the island are celebrating the blossoming of the local lilac flowers.

Every spring, when the lilacs bloom, the air is filled with the fragrance of the flowers and the sound of music. You can find food stands lining the streets, entertainers walking the sidewalks, and musicians performing on stage.

The Lilac Festival event takes place Downtown from May 21st to the 31st. Please prefix all of your threads with "Event" so that members know which threads to participate in.

Please note that this event is a scenery event and players are encouraged to use this as background for their threads. Tag your threads with Lilac Music Festival.

Throughout the weekend, people lie out blankets or chairs and watch the main event of the Lilac Music Festival, which is the vast concert that goes on with both new artists from the island and famous singers who have moved the Manta Carlos.

The Lilac Concert is an ICC event taking place the weekend of the Lilac Music Festival.

Power Voucher Claiming
Along with the changes to the power system, we're going to be updating and streamlining both the power upgrade system itself, but also the way we handle monthly power vouchers. You can find the current system here, but the important thing is that if you have finished threads to claim for this month, you should claim them before the end of the month. Starting in June, threads finished May or earlier will not be able to be claimed. The new setup will be much easier to take advantage of for both staff and players.​